


Fool Me Once

by moonstruckbucky



Series: The Billy Hargrove Chronicles [15]
Category: Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Cheating, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-22 19:09:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18533698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonstruckbucky/pseuds/moonstruckbucky





	Fool Me Once

Billy’s house never felt warm and welcoming, despite Susan’s best efforts. She adored you, thought you were good for Billy in keeping him out of trouble and on the straight and narrow. Billy’s father, Neil, was harder to convince, believing you were just a temporary bed-warmer for his playboy son. However, six months had gone by and you were still around, so Neil, for the most part, kept his unpleasantries to himself. **  
**

Billy had skipped school today which, surprisingly for him, was unusual. Despite the fact that whenever the word “school” left his mouth it was often followed by “prison”, “hell”, or “mind-numbing torture”, Billy maintained perfect attendance, believing it would be his best chance for a one-way ticket out of Hawkins for good.

Assuming he was sick, you skipped your last period study hall and went home to whip up some homemade soup, which you poured into a Thermos. You hummed along to the radio on your drive over, the Thermos steaming in the cupholder beside you. It wasn’t often that Billy got sick, but someone in class had suffered from a nasty bug a week ago, so he’d probably caught it. His Camaro was parked along the street when you pulled up behind it and you gave the hood an affectionate pat on your way by. You had fond memories in that car, some innocent and even more of them not quite so.

The screen door slammed behind you and you winced, forgetting that the hinges needed replacing. You rapped quickly on the door, and moments later, Susan answered, looking both surprised and mildly worried. Music played loudly from Billy’s room, far from an unusual occurrence.

“Y-Y/N, what are you doing here?” she asked, glancing quickly over her shoulder.

“Billy didn’t come to school today, so I figured he caught that bug that’s been going around. I made him some soup.” You held up the Thermos. “Is it okay if I bring it to him?”

“Oh, um, I-I, I suppose so,” she stammered. You thought it odd but didn’t think too much about it.

Maybe you should’ve.

As you walked down the hall, your ears picked up sounds separate from the noise of Motley Crue and your eyebrows came together in confusion. You knocked twice on his closed bedroom door.

“Billy?” you asked, twisting the knob and swinging the door open.

The sight that greeted you had your heart in your stomach and the Thermos on the floor, leaking soup into the carpet. Billy was on his back on his bed, clearly naked, with Monica Hart topless on top of him, her skirt rucked up to her waist. It was obvious what they were getting up to, but upon your entrance both of them went sheet-white in their faces, eyes wide and on you.

Their figures blurred as tears rapidly rose to the surface, and you wrapped your lips around your teeth to keep from crying out. Billy shoved Monica off him, giving you a wonderful view of his softening cock, the condom glistening with Monica’s juices. He threw on a pair of basketball shorts and stood up, moving towards you even though you were moving away. Monica sat on his floor, knees bent and wide open, watching.

Your eyes remained fixed on Billy’s even as the tears spilled over, creating tracks through your makeup on your face. Billy looked the picture of remorseful as his mouth opened and closed, trying to find something, anything to say that could possibly explain such a betrayal. With a burst of energy, your palm met his cheek harshly, the slap echoing in the small space. Even Monica looked surprised.

You hadn’t said a word, and you didn’t as you turned on your heel and hurried down the hall. Susan had barely moved from her place by the front door, and you couldn’t help the glare you directed at her. How could she have known and not told you, warned you? You stormed down the walkway, Billy calling after you as he tried to formulate some kind of response to make you stop.

“I love you!” he cried desperately. For a moment, he was hopeful as you stopped dead in your tracks and turned around, but the utterly shattered look on your face morphed into one of rage, and he knew it was the wrong thing to say.

You see, Billy hadn’t yet said those three little words to you. He felt them, sure, but saying it made it real, made him more human and less of a monster. He wasn’t used to being anything other than a complete asshole so, like a pussy, he ran away from his feelings. He’d fucked up by cheating, but he’d driven the knife further by desperately, carelessly throwing out the words he knew you so badly wanted to hear.

“How dare you, you stupid, narcissistic, self-obsessed  _asshole_!” you hollered, punctuating each word with a step closer to him. Billy’s eyes went wide and fearful and so full of regret that you almost believed him. “You’re really going to….I can’t believe….I don’t even have words to describe how much you just hurt me, Billy. You really are just like they said. You sure had me fooled. In case it wasn’t clear, we are over.”

Billy’s heart cracked in his chest as you whirled around and stomped back to your car, letting out a primal, heartbreaking cry once your door was closed. You turned the engine over and roared away from the curb, narrowly missing Billy’s back bumper.

Tugging at his hair, Billy sulked back into his house, ignoring Susan’s disappointed stare. Monica was clothed again, standing in the hallway and frowning at Billy.

“Get out,” he hissed before she could say anything. He felt sick to his stomach and he didn’t want to see anyone. He could blame Monica for her part in all of this, but truth was, you were right. He was an asshole, just like everyone pegged him to be, and he didn’t deserve you.

Weeks went by and Billy, fortunately, kept his distance from you, but it didn’t stop his heart from racing whenever he saw you in the hallway, smiling and looking….happy. To know he was no longer the cause of it sent him into a downward spiral of a lethal dose of depression and rage. He was fighting again, antagonizing Harrington at basketball, doubling his efforts when he found out that  _Harrington_  of all people was the cause of your happiness.

He wasn’t sure if you’d meant for him to see Steve laying one on you in the middle of the hallway, but he had, and he wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole. Harrington got his girl and Billy had never felt like more of a failure, of less of a man despite the things Neil had said about you. He had a good woman, an amazing one, and he let you go because he was too chicken shit to face his feelings.

Now it was too late.

Graduation was nearing, and he knew you were applying like mad to schools all over the country. Regardless of whether Steve was going with you, Billy knew the chances of seeing you again were slim to none.

And really, maybe that was for the better. He poisoned your life, held you back from achieving all the dreams he knew you had. Meanwhile, he took a part time job at the grocery store as a bag boy and another at the auto shop to bring in some extra money so that he could finally leave Hawkins for good.

You’d always told him he’d get out, make something of himself as a big “fuck you” to Neil for putting it in his head that he’d never amount to anything. You’d always believed in him, always pushed him and gave him the drive he needed. He stayed in school because of you, stopped skipping and actually  _tried_  on his schoolwork. He had good grades, he had a brain, he could go to college.

So he applied to schools in California and imagine his surprise when he actually got accepted into one. He’d have to apply for student aid, but he got in, and he responded that he would be joining the graduating class of the University of Southern California, class of 1991. He was really doing it, going to college.

When graduation came around, Billy had his Camaro packed with all of his belongings and a rucksack of every penny he’d saved over the past few months. It’d be enough to put him up in a meager motel for a little while until he could find a dinky apartment close to campus, and he was fine with that.

He clapped for you when you walked across the stage in your heels, accepting your diploma with a radiant smile. Your family in the stands and Steve a couple seats down cheered the loudest, and there was only a small ache in his chest when you aimed that smile at your boyfriend.

Afterwards, Billy was ready to head out to California, leave Hawkins behind for good. But you, and Steve, intercepted him by accident.

“Hi Billy,” you greeted with a timid smile. They were the first words you’d spoken to him in months, and, against his wishes, it rekindled that yearning for you. But he tamped it down and gave you a small smile. “Congratulations. I knew you could do it.”

Billy’s head bobbed and he ducked it, feeling small under both your and Steve’s gazes. “Thanks. Congrats, by the way, the two of you.”

“Thanks man,” Steve replied, surprisingly genuinely. The two of them might not have gotten along, but they were both on the same plane of believing they were inadequate for anything but small town life.

“What are you doing now that high school’s over?” you asked.

“California,” was his automatic reply. Your smile faded a little but it perked back up when he said, “I got into college.”

“That’s great! I told you, you could do it.”

“Yeah. You were always right, you know.” Your smile dropped completely as his double meaning sunk in. “Well, it’s time I head out. Have a good life, Y/N. Harrington, take care of her.”

“Will do. Good luck to ya, man.” Steve held out a hand, and it only took Billy a moment to think it over before Billy took it firmly, giving his former nemesis a nod of respect.

“You too, Harrington. Remember, plant your feet.” He winked and shoved his hands in his pockets under his graduation gown, turning on his heel towards the parking lot.

Once in his car, Billy took a deep but shaky breath, fingers curling over the steering wheel as he fought off the rising emotion in his chest. It wasn’t an official goodbye to you, but it still made his heart clench to think that this might be the last time he’d ever see you.

As he debated going back to find out, a knock at his window made him jump. Like something out of a movie, there you were, eyes expectant and…a little sad. You stepped back as he opened his door and got out, towering over you, and the close proximity offered him a whiff of your perfume, the perfume that drove him wild.

You seemed to be fighting with yourself over something, eyes flitting from his face, to the car, and back, and then you threw yourself into his chest. His mind took more than a few seconds to catch up, but when it did, he wrapped his arms around you and reveled in the feel of your body against his, seeking comfort from him like you used to.

“I’ll miss you Billy,” you said honestly into his chest. You took a step back, out of his embrace, and sniffled, wiping a hand under your eyes. “I know we didn’t end very well but you’re still important to me. You’re going someplace, B, and I’m so proud of you.”

He swallowed thickly, trying to stave off the stinging in his eyes, but then he thought, fuck it. If he couldn’t lose it in front of you then who could he fall apart for? He let the tears loose, leaning into your hand when you reached up to wipe them away.

“I’m so sorry for what I did to you,” he said hoarsely. “It was shitty and it wasn’t fair and I can’t leave knowing that I didn’t at least apologize to you.”

“It’s okay—”

“It not okay, Y/N,” he interjected. His hands came up to frame your face. “You were so,  _so_  good to me and I just….ruined you. I hurt you the way no one should ever be hurt, especially you. For….for what it’s worth, she didn’t mean anything to me. I was just scared.”

“I know you were,” you said understandingly with a short nod. “And that means I failed if you didn’t feel like you could tell me that, so for that, I’ll always be sorry.”

Billy sighed, knowing that you could be just as stubborn as he was, so he let it go and settled for just being able to talk to you. He could pretend for a minute that he still had you.

“Take care of yourself out there, okay Surfer Boy?” you said wetly, eyes brimming. He smiled shakily, licked his bottom lip, and nodded. “And if you ever find yourself in Chicago, look me up okay?”

“I will. Good luck, Y/N.”

The two of you parted, and you headed back towards Steve’s waiting car, turning once to look over your shoulder and smile. While Billy’s heart still ached for you, he felt lighter than he had in a long time, and he finally felt like things would be okay.


End file.
